Thursday, October 1, 2009

Child rape hysteria

Okay, one more point about the Roman Polanski matter:

The main gist of the vitriolic, sanctimonious and frequently violent commentary on the internet regarding Roman Polanski is that the legal nuances as to whether judicial misconduct deprived Polanski of his ability to make rational decisions about his defense are irrelevant: A CHILD WAS RAPED!!DAMN THE LAW AND THE CONSTITUTION!!! Your stupid legal rights mean nothing in the face of a 30-year-old child sex case!

The problem with this is that our legal rights to a fair trial, or in this case, plea bargaining process, are most crucial in highly inflammatory cases. The types of cases that used to be solved by angry mobs.

Yes, this is an outrageous case. It is also an example of how we tolerate the trampling of rights that protect us all when the allegations in the case are intolerable.